2020 Year in Books.

Posted on January 8, 2021 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

Today it is time to look back on my reading throughout 2020! I’m not going to lie, it was a struggle with reading. I wasn’t even sure I would complete my Goodreads challenge. I had to adjust my reading “rules” just to accomplish that goal alone. I wanted this post to be full of different pie charts and stats, but I just didn’t have the time to do everything I wanted for it. I also just wanted to get it posted since it’s already January 8. I do have a couple numbers to share with you in this post and give an update on my reading goals from 2020 and if I accomplished them or not. First, let’s start with my Goodreads reading goal…I wanted to read 50 books in 2020…

51 of books read for challenge.
12 of those were audiobooks.

Compared to last year, I read 34 less books than I did in 2019. That number is kind of depressing, but as I am sure I will say countless times in this post, it was a crazy year! My mind was elsewhere and my drive and motivation to read was almost non-existent at times. I am happy that I at least completed the challenge though even if it wasn’t by much.

I don’t do half star ratings and I use Goodreads’ rating system with how I rate the books that I read. Below is how Goodreads has their star ratings set up.

5 stars – it was amazing
4 stars – I really liked it
3 stars – liked it
2 stars – it was ok
1 star – did not like it

I feel like I used to give three stars out in previous years if I thought it was okay and 2 stars if I didn’t really like it and forgot about 1 star altogether. So over the last few years I tried to use the way Goodreads has their stars when it came to rating books and continued with that in 2020. With that being said here are my star rating counts for the books that I read in 2020!

My numbers look a lot different than they did last year. I don’t know if it was because I was mentally in a different place and nothing “wowed” me much in 2020 or if I just didn’t read that many amazing books this year. I know that I read 30+ less books than I did last year, so that could have played a big part in it too. Last year I gave out 29 five stars and in 2020 I only gave out seven! This year it looks like the four star rating was my best friend because I gave out so many four stars. Overall, I think that I still read a lot of great books. It was just a bummer that I didn’t have a lot of five star reads.

You can check out all the books that I read in 2020 over here with links to reviews if I did one. But I will be doing a series of blog posts coming soon of all the books that I read in 2020 with their star ratings. My first post will be all the five star books of the year and so on. I did it in previous years and decided to continue with those posts, because it’s always fun to look back on the books that I read and share what I loved and maybe didn’t love so much.

Now onto my 2020 reading goals and whether I think I accomplished them or not. You can check out the actual post I made in January 2020 of my goals over here, but here is just a small recap of what they were. That post has longer explanations of what each of these goals were. Sorry in advance if I repeat myself a bunch of times throughout this next section lol.

2020 Goodreads Challenge.
I was able to complete my 2020 Goodreads challenge of reading 50 books. I was only able to read 51 though, which was a little disappointing because I was hoping to read a lot more. I’m still happy that I was able to read 51 books though.

Read 25 of my own books.
What I meant by this was any books that I bought in 2019 or earlier. Nothing I bought in 2020. With this goal, I only read 12 of my older books, so that was a bummer.

Don’t fall behind on ARCs.
I did fall behind on ARCs quite a bit, because I wasn’t reading as much as I hoped that I would. It was a crazy year as you guys know, so my mind was just elsewhere.

Continue to buy less books.
I did very good with this goal, because I honestly hardly bought many books compared to most years. I think I bought around 30 books, not including e-books. You all know I probably went crazy with those e-book deals. 😛

Re-organize my bookshelves and my Goodreads shelves.
I don’t think I did this at all. I honestly just didn’t really have it in me to mess around with either of them. There was one point that I had to take all my books off my shelves because we were redoing the flooring, but I honestly just put them up almost exactly like they were before. I missed my opportunity haha.

Get rid of books I didn’t like or plan to read.
I did get rid of a ton of books at the beginning of the year. I took them to a used book store. I could probably go through my shelves again and get rid of more. For now I am pretty happy with where things are at.

Get back into bookstagram.
I attempted to get back on bookstagram, but that didn’t last very long. I posted 21 pictures in 2020 over on my bookstagram account “sociallyawkwardbookworm”. I wanted to post more and I was excited to, but then my motivation to do that just dropped and I wasn’t into it.

Focus more on my blog and new content.
As I previously said, it was a crazy year and I just didn’t have the motivation or drive to come up with new content for my blog or put very much focus into it like I really hoped. Seems like lack of motivation was a big theme for 2020 lol.

I hope to be around more in 2020!
I lost my job in December 2019, then covid hit shortly after, and the world changed so much, so my love for everything just dropped so much. I got insanely depressed and my mind was just not here anymore. I wasn’t around much on my blog or anywhere, honestly. It was a really sad year.

How did you do this year with your reading goals? How many books did you read in 2020? Feel free to link me to your posts!

I think I will end this post here. My next post will be my reading goals for 2021. You may see a repeat of a couple of these, but also a few new ones. I’m actually thinking about keeping it pretty short for this year, because I am still in this weird place and I just want 2021 to be as stress-free as possible. We’ll see what happens! I’ll catch up with your posts and reply to comments this weekend as I don’t work the weekends, so I’ll have some time to finally catch up! Feel free to link me to any posts that you REALLY want me to see ASAP and I’ll make those priority. 😀

In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| December.
Book Haul|| December.
Happy New Year, 2021.

I hope you have a great day!

Stuck…where do I go from here?

Posted on March 10, 2020 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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“stop holding on, if it’s holding you back, then let it go; your grass will always be the greenest if you let it grow” 🌼🐝🌿

This is one of my favorite pictures that I’ve taken recently. You can find cool picture opportunities anywhere! Example: I took this photo in the garden section of Home Depot, lol. I’m going to do a series of picture posts; I have a ton of pictures to share. I went to upload them all into one post and it ended up being 60+ pictures, so I decided I’ll break it up into multiple posts instead. I’m going to start working on those this week, so that by next week I can start posting them.

Other than these posts, I’ve been feeling a little bit stuck in terms of my blog, my bookstagram, and essentially my life as well. I am trying to get back into bookstagram, but I have no idea what kind of pictures to post and what theme I want to go for. When I first started my bookstagram I had so many ideas and I was having a lot of fun with it. I guess since I haven’t really been doing it consistently over the last couple years, I forgot and lost my creativity with that. With the blog, I’m not sure what kind of content I should post. It’s kind of frustrating!

I think when I start to feel uninspired is usually when I quit things and I don’t want to quit blogging! I actually really love it and love all the friends I’ve made and continue to make every day, but sometimes I feel like I’m boring everyone with the same content over and over again. You know, it’s not even just blogging and bookstagram. I have an online journal that I write about things happening in my life (it’s more of personal journal and I’ve been using it since I was in high school) and I really have nothing to write in my own personal journal either.

I think it has more to do with how I’ve been feeling about myself lately. I have all of these negative feelings (and thoughts) about myself over the last 3-4 months that I’ve never had before. It’s so weird experiencing this because I used to always think so highly of myself. Now I question whether that was even real or if I was pretending/lying to myself all my life. The end months of 2019 messed with my self-confidence and shattered who I thought I was. I only feel like a fraction of who I was before and that scares me! I want to get back to my old self, where I was always positive and always happy. I want to get out of this negative headspace. Some days I think I am finally out of it and then others I feel right back in there. Sigh.

I’ve been obsessed with this song “Hangnail” by Rationale. I feel like I relate to it a lot lately. I just feel down about myself and my life these days. Here’s the song if you’re interested: https://youtu.be/O9sTYRUkSHc

“I wish I had this poetic poise, an articulate finesse.
I’m too clumsy and the words escape me.
I’m hazy and any passing thought can displace me.”

I think this negative headspace; these thoughts and these feelings are pouring into everything in my life, including blogging. I think this is where so much of my “stuck” feeling comes from too. Maybe I can Google search some ideas for both bookstagram and my blog and see what I can come up with! I did bookmark an awesome blog post from Kelly from Another Book in the Wall about “how to blog when you haven’t read anything new“, so I may also go back and reference her post to get some ideas as well. Anything you guys want to see on my blog? It doesn’t have to be book related!

Here are my social media accounts if you’re interested in being friends outside of the amazing blogosphere. I usually post regularly on my personal Instagram account.

Goodreads: heyyitsashley_
Twitter: whoa_itsashley
Pinterest: lalalaitsashley
Instagram: heyyitsashley – personal Instagram account
Bookstagram: foreverbookish_ – book Instagram account (underscore after “bookish”)

I will catch up with all of your posts and reply to comments later today or possibly tomorrow. I’m really hoping to try and get some reading in today. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Andy Reads|| Maybe Someday.
March TBR (Maybe).
Wrap Up|| February.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Random|| Life & Reading Update.

Posted on November 20, 2019 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

lifeupdate

Hey!

It’s been almost two weeks since my last update. I’ve been in a blogging slump, honestly. I’ve also been stuck in my head a little bit. So I’ve been trying to distract myself with reading, TV, games on my iPad, or recently the new Pokémon Sword game on Nintendo Switch. This year has been so weird for me and it’s kind of hard to explain. I guess maybe because there has been so many changes this year. A big one having moved four hours away from my family and not seeing them every single day.

I also feel like my anxiety has gotten so much worse too, which really sucks. I can’t really even tell people about it, because then I just get told I’m making a big deal or I need to “grow up” and to “stop being scared of the world”. 🙄 If it was that easy, then I would have stopped being this way a long time ago. It’s hard and it sucks. I feel lost and not very supported in my real life (outside of the blogging world). Dealing with things on your own is hard sometimes. Not having someone to talk to is hard sometimes. That’s why I get stuck in my head sometimes.

I don’t know if any of this made sense and I’m sorry if it didn’t. This has just been a really weird year for me and most of the time I just can’t put it into words. A lot of great things happened too, but I think my mental health took a hit this year. I’ve never experienced most of these feelings before or if I have, never as bad. It’s new and has been an adjustment, I guess. So I that’s why I’ve been distant around here and also in my real life. It’s been all about distracting myself this year, because if I don’t then I just constantly think about everything that bothers me and it makes me sad.

I decorated my house for Christmas, which I love. Here’s a couple pictures of the outside. Just did a couple touches of Christmas outside. I think we might put up some Christmas lights on our house. I really want to go all out Clark Griswold style, but I doubt that happens LOL. We also put up the Christmas tree too. I haven’t been able to take a good picture of it yet.

And here is a quick little reading update of what I read recently and what I may read next.

I recently finished reading Autoboyography and The Unhoneymooners both by Christina Lauren. By the way, I just realized that Christina Lauren is TWO PEOPLE! Anyway, I really enjoyed both of these books so much. I need to read more from Christina Lauren.

I think in my last reading update I said I was going to read Regretting You next, but I ended up reading The Unhoneymooners instead since it was a library book that was going to be returned soon. SOOO, I may be picking up Regretting You today. I am supposed to be getting my copy of The Queen of Nothing (I got the black Barnes & Noble edition) today or tomorrow, so I may also be picking that one up soon too. I’m actually scared to read The Queen of Nothing, because I really thought The Wicked King wasn’t that great. I guess we’ll see what happens!

Well, that’s all for this post. I just wanted to give a quick update on why I haven’t been around too much. I try to hop on to catch up with you guys at least once a week, so I will at some point this week. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Mini Review|| The Wives.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Book Haul|| June.

Posted on June 28, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I made it the entire month without buying any physical books! I’m not counting e-books, because sometimes I can’t control myself when it comes to those e-book deals LOL. Even though I didn’t buy any books, I did get some Fall ARCs from Fierce Reads and Little, Brown Books/The Novl in the mail this month. I didn’t get the chance to take pictures of my books for the blog and bookstagram, but I put the book covers from Goodreads below. You can check out all the books I own over here. There’s also links on that page to my Kindle books and my physical books. I need to update the lists, it’s been a couple months. Enough rambling, here is my June book haul.

Books from Fierce Reads:

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney (September 2018)
Wilder by Andrew Simonet (November 2018)
Black Wings Beating by Alex London (September 2018)
Unbroken by Marieke Nijkamp & Other Authors (September 2018)

I am really stoked that Fierce Reads sent me a package with some Fall ARCs, because I am really looking forward to these. They’ve all been high on my list of books that I want to read.

Books from The Novl:

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert (August 2018)
The War Outside by Monica Hesse (September 2018)

I am also really excited that I was sent these two books from The Novl. I read Brandy Colbert and Monica Hesse’s other books and enjoyed them, so I can’t wait to read their new books. Finding Yvonne was signed too! There was a note included that said they appreciate me always sending in my reviews, so they wanted to give me a signed copy of Finding Yvonne. That was really cool!

Hopefully I’ll be reading all of these all soon and reviews to come. 🙂 I also have some ARCs from July that I will hopefully read ASAP and get those reviews posted as well. I need to play ARC catch up. Life has just gotten in the way these last couple months. I’m thinking of doing a post (or page on my blog) of all the ARCs and books that I need to read and review. I’ve posted about them in haul posts before, but I think it’ll be nice to have a post to go back to and check the books off of as I read and post the reviews for them.

E-Books:

Posted by John Davis Anderson
Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts
To the Bridge by Nancy Rommelmann
The Temptation of Adam by Davis Connis
Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Top Ten by Katie Cotugno
Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West
All Out by Saundra Mitchell & Various Authors
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Okay, so there were a ton of e-books on sale this month that I’ve been really wanting to read. I couldn’t resist getting them. Like the Temptation of Adam, I have been dying for that book to go on sale. I already own a physical copy of Circe, but it was on sale so I decided to just get it because I feel like I’ll finally finish it if I have the e-book (weird logic, I know lol). My hold at the library was at like number 60 in line and I want to finally get it finished before the end of July. I own The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto too, but Mitch Albom is one of my favorite authors and I have all his books on e-book (and physical) so when I seen it on sale I couldn’t pass it up. 😛 I still haven’t read it either, which hopefully I will soon.

What books did you get this month? Have you read any of the ones that I got? Feel free to link me to your posts so I can check them out!

In case you missed it;
Travel|| Topeekeegee Yugnee (T.Y.) Park.
Friday Finds #73.
Book Tag|| Mid-Year Freak Out.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Random|| Life Update.

Posted on June 20, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

So I think I am battling a reading slump, which totally sucks! I was flying through books this month. I was making pretty big progress with my June TBR (check it out here). I read seven books (most were graphic novels) and then finished another that I had started in May. That’s eight books I read at the beginning of this month and I read them so fast too and I think I burned myself out, to be honest. My current read Love, Hate, and Other Filters goes back to the library in SIX DAYS and I am not anywhere near to finishing it, because I haven’t been in the mood to read. I am really enjoying it too and that makes it worse, in my opinion.

I also have things happening in my life that are taking over brain space. My mind is elsewhere. I’ve even neglected finishing some school stuff, ugh. I have a lot of things that need to happen in such a short amount of time. I try to stay composed though and realistically, I probably brush off a lot of important things. If things don’t make me happy or things I don’t want to do, then I tend to ignore doing those things for as long as possible. I also have this mindset that whatever happens, happens. I mean, that’s a pretty good mindset…to an extent. It’s good for things that are not really in your control. What’s happening now was totally in my control…

I am a huge procrastinator, not going to lie. Example: I’ve known I was going to be moving for probably almost a year now and I have done nothing to move the process along to make it go more smoothly. I have three months now and….I’m fucked? Everyday I procrastinate things and then things happen that are no longer in my control and my trusty (not full proof, by the way) motto pops into my head “whatever happens, happens”. So when I say my mind is elsewhere, it’s on what the heck am I going to do about moving?

Where? How? How much is this going to cost? Savings? What savings? Things come up and there goes the savings. What about all the crap the hubby and I own? We own so much damn stuff, ughhh. What happen to minimalism this year? I had plans to toss pretty much all our stuff this year… <— I put that idea to the side and decided i’d come back to it later the next day after thinking it. I have four animals, who’s going to rent to someone with three cats and a dog? I’m sure there is ways around this, but I get paranoid they’ll find out and then we’ll be screwed. BLEHHHH. Life.

What about work? I am socially awkward (hence my blog name) and I also have MAJOR social anxiety…so the fact that I have to talk to my boss about potentially moving away but still REALLY wanting to keep my job is freaking me the hell out. I have the type of job that I can do it from home if needed. I have panic attacks thinking about this. If he says no, then we have to stay here; in this expensive city that realistically we just can’t afford anymore. Or if my boss says no and we still move to the cheaper city that I really want to move to, what am I going to do about a job? I can’t talk to people. SOCIAL ANXIETY SUCKS. I can’t handle finding a new job. Even thinking this is a possibility is scary as hell!

So what do I do when I can’t handle things? I pretend this is all a non-existent thing in my life and go about my life; doing whatever it is that I want to do instead of what I NEED to do. Sometimes I like to think I work harder (maybe even better) under pressure or a deadline, because I literally have no other choice but to do the work now that there is no time to stall or that word again…procrastinate. That’s not a good way to go about life either, by the way. Everything is a lot easier when you give yourself time to actually do things instead of trying to do a million things in a short amount of time on top of your regular life stuff. It only drives you crazy.

I honestly had no intentions of this post to turn out like this. I was actually going to tell you guys I was in a reading slump and then post pictures that I took while at the park with my sister a couple weeks ago. I am so tired of adulting. Not that I really do much of it aside from pay my bills on time. That’s probably the only thing I got right as far as this adult thing goes. Sometimes I buy vegetables. I think I rambled way too much and I think I needed to just vent this all somewhere.

Anyway, this is part of why I’ve been so MIA on here. It’s also what kick-started this reading slump. I have so many things I need to figure out. I also need to figure out how to get over my fear of talking to my boss, because I really need to do it ASAP. The sooner the better, especially because we need to do know if we’re staying or going. Enough of that though. Here’s a lens ball picture of me that my sister took. I was taking a picture of her taking a picture of me through the lens balls, lol.

I’ll share all of my other pictures soon. I have some from when my sister and I went to a park. I also have some from when we visited our dad and we went to another park. And then a TON more from the last 2.5 months. I’m sorry if I continue to be a little less active for awhile. This post pretty much explains why and also what my life is going to be like the next few months trying to figure all of this out!

In case you missed it;
Book Tag|| Mid-Year Freak Out.
Thoughts|| Be Prepared.
Thoughts|| All Summer Long.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

June TBR {Maybe}.

Posted on June 5, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

junetbr

Hey!

I am so bad with sticking to TBR lists, but I decided to make one for this month because I have a pretty good idea about what I want to read this month. I’m dedicating this month to a lot of graphic novels and hopefully will also have time for some other books as well. I have quite a few graphic novels that I own that I finally want to read.

Graphic Novels:

All Summer Long by Hope Larson
Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer
Maus Vol 1 & 2 by Art Spiegelman (2 to read)
Saga Vol 2, 3, 4, 5 by Brian K. Vaughan (4 to read)

I already read Saga Vol 2 & 3 yesterday and I am currently reading All Summer Long right now. I was able to get volumes 4 & 5 of Saga from the library, but I will eventually be buying my own copies. I love the series so far. I’m nervous about Wires and Nerve, because I didn’t really like the Lunar Chronicles all that much.

Other books if I have time:

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo (Library)
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw (Library)
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed (Library)
Circe by Madeline Miller

If I have some time this month, then I hope to read these four books and I also want to finish Circe as well. I still have the second half the book to read, but I ended up putting it on hold for now. I’m just not as into it as I thought I would be. I was able to get the e-books from my library, so hopefully I’ll get around to reading some of them before they get returned. The books on this list are books that I have been DYING to read, so I am hoping to get to at least a couple if not all.

This is a pretty big TBR, but I am hoping since I am reading a lot of graphic novels, I’ll be able to fly through them. I read Saga Vol 2 & 3 in one day and I probably could have read 4 & 5 yesterday as well if I hadn’t started something else. 😛 So we’ll see what happens!

What’s on your June TBR? Have you read any of the ones on my list? Any that you think I should read ASAP?

I hope to catch up with your posts and reply to comments later today or tomorrow if I don’t have time today. 😀

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| May 25-31.
Wrap Up|| May.
Book Haul|| May.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Book Haul|| May.

Posted on May 29, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I have a pretty small book haul, which is kind of a good thing! My e-book haul on the other hand, that is a little big, lol. 😛 I’m just going to jump right into my haul! You can check out all the books I own over here. I updated my lists last week. There’s also links on that page to my Kindle books and my physical books. Anyway, here are the books that I got this month.

Books I Bought:

Puddin’ by Julie Murphy
Maus I by Art Spiegelman
Maus II by Art Spiegelman

So happy that Puddin’ is finally out in the world! I have been dying to get my hands on it since I heard there are a Dumplin’ sequel. I wan’t wait to dive into it. I read Emergency Contact this month (which I may have a review coming up) and the MC talked about Maus and how it changed her life and made her want to be come a writer. So I looked it up and I ended up buying the graphic novels, so I can read them.

Books from Publishers & Authors:

Fire & Bone by Rachel A Marks

I did an Instagram tour/giveaway for Fire & Bone, so the author sent me a copy so I could be apart of that. It sounds really good and I am stoked to read it.

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Shaeffer (Netgalley)

I said I wouldn’t request any books on Netgalley for awhile, but when I read the description of Not Even Bones, I had to do it. It sounds so good and right up my alley. At first I actually didn’t request it, but when I was browsing Netgalley again it jumped out at me again, so I did it.

E-Books:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken
Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Wicked Like A Wildfire by Lana Popovic
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
Words on Bathroom Walls by Julie Walton

So many of these e-books I have been waiting for them to go on sale and finally they did, so my e-book haul is pretty big! I am super stoked for every single one of them.

What books did you get in the month of May? Have you read any of the ones that I got? Feel free to link me to your haul posts if you have one!

I’ll have my wrap up posted in the next couple days. I am hoping to have Circe finished before then, but I’m not sure that will happen since I still have the half of the book to read. I didn’t get much reading done this weekend like I wanted to do.

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| 15-24.
Photo A Day|| May 7-14.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Top Ten Tuesday|| Favorite Color Book Covers.

Posted on May 8, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

TTT-Big2

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl.

Books With My Favorite Color On the Cover (or In the Title).

Hey!

The topic for today is books with my favorite color on the cover (or in the title). This is a fun topic this week! My favorite color is PINK. I pretty much love all shades of pink. These ten books are books that I have not read yet, but really want to read. Some of them I own and some of them I don’t own yet.

Dreamology by Lucy Keating
The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne
Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering
Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index by Julie Israel
Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry
A Messy, Beautiful Life by Sara Jade Alan
The Falling Between Us by Ash Parsons
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

I am hoping to read The Falling Between Us and Emergency Contact this month. And of course I would love to read all of these books at some point this year. I’ve owned Dreamology and The Wrong Side of Right for awhile now.

What’s your favorite color? Have you read any of the books on my list? Feel free to link me to your posts, so I can check them out!

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| May 1-6.
Wrap Up|| April.
Top Ten Tuesday|| Books I’d Slay a Lion to Get Early.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleypink

Random|| Quick Update.

Posted on April 27, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I haven’t updated in a week (so bad of me, ugh), but thought I would do a little update of what’s happening.

I started to watch this show on Netflix called “Wentworth” and honestly it has taken over my life. Think of Orange is the New Black but 100 times better and a lot more serious. It’s a UK (or Australian) show I believe and I swear, they make the best shows. I even stumbled upon this meme and seriously…this meme is everything and speaks so much truth, haha.

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I am LIVING for this show. I thank my younger sister for telling me about it. I’ve been watching a half a season to an entire season in a day. Last Friday I kid you not, I stayed up until 5AM just to finish season three, lol. I highly recommend checking out Wentworth though, especially if you like OITNB. In my opinion it’s so much better than OITNB though. I don’t even know how I will be able to go back to OITNB after this.

I also went back to rewatching 7th Heaven again. I took a break from my rewatch, but am now back on it because I don’t want to watch every single episode of Wentworth (there are five seasons currently on Netflix) yet. I’m not ready to be done with them yet, so I’ve been switching between the two, lol. I think there is another season coming out this year though!

What else has been taking over my time you ask? How about the new mobile Harry Potter game that was just released. It’s so fun! Professor Snape hates me and I suck at potions class. I think he just intimidates me and I freak out and can’t do it correctly, haha. Because you basically do the same actions for flying class and for charms class and I am perfect at those. WTF!? UGHH. I still love the game though. I do hate that you have to wait for you energy to fill back up though. That’s about my only complaint.

I’ve also been back to playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp a lot more on my phone again. So that’s also taking up some of my time. I go through stages where I’ll play it all the time and then not play it much at all. Now I’m back to all the time. There is also trying to squeeze in school reading and tests as well. I’ll have to do another lesson this weekend and it’s a long lesson. YIKES! I’m sure it’ll be fine though. I’ve gotten an A on all of my tests and currently still have a 4.0. 😛

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So many things are taking up my time right now, so I haven’t been reading as much as I want to. With not reading very much, it also means I haven’t really been blogging very much. I hope to catch up with your blogs and finally catch up with some of these tags I’ve been tagged to do. OH HEY! There’s a picture of Leaf cuddling with me while I read. I’m currently reading The Radium Girls and it’s so crazy and also so sad. 😦

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Check out the Goodreads Description below:
The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women’s cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.

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Outfit of the day! There was this bird dress I seen on Amazon and it was calling my name for over a month. I finally decided I had to have it. I got it a couple of weeks ago and finally wearing it today! I’m pretty much living for this dress It’s a really loose fitting dress, which I like. I’m wearing black leggings as well. I have some black tights, but I like how it looks with the leggings too.

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Last but not least, hands down, my favorite picture I’ve taken with my 60mm lens ball! I am so proud of this picture, haha. I haven’t had the chance to take my lens ball out anywhere cool quite yet, but I took this one in my backyard. We have a really tall palm tree back there and this shot came out so perfect! 😀 I can’t wait to actually go to some fun places and try out my two lens balls. I am hoping to try to go to the beach and try it out sometime.

That’s all for my little update! Sorry I haven’t been that active on here this week. Hopefully next week is a better week. I should hopefully have a ton of reviews to post soonish, because I have a ton of books that I need to start reading that I need to do reviews for. That’s a plus! And tags, I need to get to my tags! Book haul post soonish and April wrap up too.

In case you missed it;
Thoughts|| Hot Mess.
Book Tag|| 20 Questions.
Random|| Picture Update.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Book Tag|| 20 Questions.

Posted on April 18, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I was tagged by Lilly from Lair of Books to do the 20 questions tag. Go check out Lilly’s blog! Her blog is one of my favorites to read and she’s super cool! I am so far behind on doing tags (I have a ton of drafts started, so I know what tags I need to do), so hopefully this will get me in the mood to finally catch up on all those tags!

The Questions:

How many books is too many books in a book series?

+ This is a tough one, because it all really depends on the series. I think I’ll go with five books. I think after that then it’s usually a bit much. I do love the Falling Kingdoms series so much though and that’s six. 😛

How do you feel about cliffhangers?

+ I have a love/hate for cliffhangers. I love them because they are usually really crazy and leave me a wreck. I hate them because if the series isn’t already completely published, then I have to wait until I can read the next book. The wait almost always kills me more than the cliffhanger.

Hardback or paperback?

+ Hmmm….I guess I’ll choose hardback for my official answer. They are a lot prettier and look nicer on my bookshelves. I do love paperbacks though, they are a lot easier to read, not as heavy lol.

Favorite book?

+ Psycho by Robert Bloch. I loved this book so much. I love that they made a TV show based on Norman Bates (Bates Motel). I actually think this is a series too, but I never got around to reading the other books. I would love to get my hands on copies of them though and read them.

Least favorite book?

+ This is a tough question, because I’m not really sure what I would say is my least favorite book. Here are five books that I either gave a 1 or 2 stars to. The Curse Keepers, The Last Star, The Shock of the Fall, Illuminae, and We Were Liars. Unpopular opinion with Illuminae, but oh well. It was not my jam. I think a lot of people loved We Were Liars too, but I thought it was so boring. I don’t even want to get on the topic of The Last Star, UGHH.

Love triangles, yes or no?

+ No thanks. I find them a bit annoying.

The most recent book you just couldn’t finish?

+ The last book that I could not finish was I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn. I couldn’t get into it. It was boring. I didn’t like the characters.

A book you’re currently reading?

+ I am currently reading Hot Mess by Emily Belden and also Member of the Family by Dianne Lake. I am hoping to have both of these books finished this week.

Last book you recommended to someone?

+ The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel. I told my sister she needed to read it, because it was just so crazy and disturbing.

Oldest book you’ve read? (Publication date)

+ The oldest book I read was The Day Boy and the Night Girl by George MacDonald. It was originally published in 1882. It’s actually one of my favorite stories too.

Newest book you’ve read? (Publication date)

+ The newest book that I read was Love & Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves. It actually doesn’t get published until May 15, 2018. The newest book I read that is already released though is Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes.

Favorite author?

+ I’m going to go with Mitch Albom and Rick Riordan for this one. So far I have really enjoyed all of their books that I’ve read. They are also some of my auto-buy authors.

Buying books or borrowing books?

+ I like buying books, but I don’t mind borrowing them. I usually check out e-books and audiobooks from my library a lot.

A book you dislike that everyone else seem to love?

+ A Court of Mist and Fury. ACOMAF was not the greatest and also why I don’t even know if I can pick up another Sarah J. Maas book again, to be honest. It was boring a lot of the time, Feyre was annoying AF, Maas messed Tamlin up BADLY. LIKE WTF? It was like he was a completely different person than he was in the first book. Feyre did so much in the first book for her love with Tamlin and then it was completely thrown out the window in this book like it didn’t mean anything. I’m just confused by the entire thing, to be honest. What was the point of ACOTAR? ACOMAF took everything from the first book and threw it out the window. It just shouldn’t have ever existed with what she did with ACOMAF, to be honest. Such a disappointment, because I absolutely loved ACOTAR. I don’t know if I will be continuing the series or not. Haven’t decided.

Bookmarks or dog-ears?

+ Bookmarks! I feel guilty even accidentally messing up any of the pages in my books. I probably have like 100+ bookmarks.

A book you can always reread?

+ Harry Potter series or the Razorland series. I love these two series so much. I am in need of a Harry Potter reread ASAP.

Can you read while hearing music?

+ Not usually. I lose focus on the story if I do. I like complete silence. I discovered this group called Sparrow Sleeps and they do lullaby covers of some of my favorite bands/songs. I end up singing along (even though there are no words), haha.

One POV or multiple POV’s? (POV’s = Point of views)

+ I prefer one POV. Sometimes multiple POVs annoy me, especially if there are a TON of them. I read a book once that had like seven POVs and I ended up hating the book. I better connect with the characters when it’s only one. Maybe even two. With the exception of the Falling Kingdoms series….Morgan Rhodes made it easy to connect with all of them. It seems like Falling Kingdoms is the exception for everything. LOL.

Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?

+ Rarely do I ever read a book in one sitting. I am not going to lie, I get distracted a lot (stupid iPhone). So I’ll read some pages, scroll through my phone, read some pages, scroll through my phone, etc. So I usually read over multiple days. There have been a handful of times where I have read books in one sitting though.

A book you’ve read because of the cover?

+ Almost all of them? LOL. Not going to lie, I tend to only look up books if I see a cover that I really love and then I’ll go check out what it’s about. I know that’s bad, haha. But I am guilty of this 9 out of 10 times.

I Tag:

I’ve seen a lot of you already did this tag, so I won’t tag any specific person. If you want to do this tag though, please feel free to link me to your posts so I can check them out! 🙂

In case you missed it;
Random|| Picture Update.
Thoughts|| Invictus.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Photo A Day|| January 17-21.

Posted on January 25, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hi!

I’ve been taking part in monthly photo a day challenges on my Instagram account (heyyitsashley) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them (when I don’t fall behind on pictures). I figured I would also cross post them to my blog as well. I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-4 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a million photo a day posts back to back. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Some of these pictures will be taken with my Nikon. There will also be some taken with my iPhone X.

Days 17-21 of January.

I accidentally skipped day 20 (which would have been “reflection”).

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Day 17: Thoughtful.
Instagram Caption: i love this guy and all the things he does for me. i can be a pain in the butt a lot of the time, but he loves me anyway. 🖤🌊
Camera: iPhone.

Went out to eat one night on a taco place at the beach with the hubby. The tacos were amazing (pictures in a later post) and the beach is always nice.

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Day 18: Cool.
Instagram Caption: “Even paradise could become a prison if one had enough time to take notice of the walls.” 📖
Camera: Nikon.

Quote used is from Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. I can’t wait for the final book to come out in February. I am dying to get my hands on it, so I can read it. Hands down one of my favorite series ever.

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Day 19: Paper.
Instagram Caption: i made a new TBR jar of some of my unread books that i really want to try to read this year. my final list ended up being 124 books (i actually own about 500 unread books 😳). i would love to read all 124, but realistically i probably won’t. it’ll be fun randomly choosing which ones to read next though.
Camera: iPhone.

So like my Instagram caption says. I made a new TBR jar (that I probably won’t use, lol) of the 124 unread books out of 500 unread that I own that I want to try to read this year. I’m most likely not going to read all 124 books, but I mean I want to choose books from just that 124 on the list. Plus whatever books I check out from the library and new releases. I just added older books to that list and a few from 2017 that I really want to make a priority this year and probably next year.

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Day 21: Day off.
Instagram Caption: i should probably clean up the house, but will most likely lay in bed with leafy all day. 😴🐱
Camera: iPhone.

Leaf forever cuddles with me and I freaking love it! My other cats don’t give me enough attention, lol.

I am having a giveaway for my three year blogiversary on my blog that goes until the end of January! I linked the blog post below, so you can check it out!

In case you missed it;
Three Year Blogiversary & Giveaway!
Top Ten Tuesday|| Books I liked, but can’t remember.
Photo A Day|| January 13-16.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Photo A Day|| January 13-16.

Posted on January 19, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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Hi!

Days 13-16 of January.

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Day 13: Floral.
Instagram Caption: g o o d • v i b e s ✌🏼
Camera: iPhone.

I seen this shirt at Five Below and had to have it! It went perfect for my “floral” photo a day topic too. 😀

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Day 14: Faceless Portrait.
Instagram Caption: “my life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.” 📷✌🏼
Camera: Nikon.

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Day 15: New.
Instagram Caption: i am living for the january @puravidabracelets pack.
Camera: iPhone.

I am seriously ADDICTED to Pura Vida Bracelets. I’m scared to even count how many I have. The last count was around 30 and that was months ago. I even have a bunch of their ankle bracelets too. I subscribe to their monthly subscription where you get three bracelets (sometimes four) every single month and they are usually part of theme, which you don’t know until you get the bracelets. I am usually in love with every single one. The theme for January looks like it is an ocean/ship theme and it’s probably one of my favorites! And there were four bracelets this month! What I love about the subscription is that it’s only $15 and you get some of there pricier bracelets every single month! I tend to not buy their really expensive bracelets (like the seed bead and most charm bracelets), because I don’t want to spend $15-25 on just one bracelet. With the monthly club though, you get those as part of the package and you still only pay $15 a month. And they are exclusive to the monthly club first. Anyway, I’m rambling, LOL! I just love their bracelets.

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Day 16: Wall.
Instagram Caption: throwback to NYC in june 2017.
Camera: Nikon.

I took this picture back in June when I went to NYC as part of my honeymoon and never posted it, so I decided to use it for my photo a day topic for this day. I also didn’t go anywhere cool this day and my walls are plain at home LOL.

I am having a giveaway for my three year blogiversary on my blog that goes until the end of January! I linked the blog post below, so you can check it out!

In case you missed it;
Three Year Blogiversary & Giveaway!
Thoughts|| A Taxonomy of Love.
Photo A Day|| January 9-12.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Thoughts|| A Taxonomy of Love.

Posted on January 18, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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A Taxonomy of Love by Rachael Allen
4 out of 5 stars.

“Sometimes you have a day that is so epic that you know, even before it’s over, that it’s going to be one of the dozens that you remember forever.”

Goodreads Description: The moment Spencer meets Hope the summer before seventh grade, it’s . . . something at first sight. He knows she’s special, possibly even magical. The pair become fast friends, climbing trees and planning world travels. After years of being outshone by his older brother and teased because of his Tourette syndrome, Spencer finally feels like he belongs. But as Hope and Spencer get older and life gets messier, the clear label of “friend” gets messier, too. Through sibling feuds and family tragedies, new relationships and broken hearts, the two grow together and apart, and Spencer, an aspiring scientist, tries to map it all out using his trusty system of taxonomy. He wants to identify and classify their relationship, but in the end, he finds that life doesn’t always fit into easy-to-manage boxes, and it’s this messy complexity that makes life so rich and beautiful.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Release date was January 9th, 2018.

A Taxonomy of Love had ALL the feels. It was cute, it was happy, it was sad (omg, was it sad!), it had me tearing up, it had me laughing, there were times I was annoyed, and times I was angry. Like I said, it had all the feels. I think all that makes for a good book, especially if you’re able to connect with the characters and experience all of the feelings and emotions they are going through. I felt that when I was reading this book and Rachael did a good job with writing it.

The book stars off with Spencer and Hope being in just seventh grade and it following them all through high school. It was really cool getting to see all the characters in this story grow and navigate life and high school. It wasn’t always easy for Spencer (especially in his younger years) since he has Tourette Syndrome. I felt so bad for him a lot of the time and I was rooting for him every page. It felt like he had to try 100 times harder than everyone. Hope had her own struggles through the years as well. It wasn’t always easy for her, but I think in ways both Spencer and Hope got through things because they had their friendship.

There were also times where Hope made me pretty angry as well. I felt so protective of Spencer, so anything that was against it made me mad or annoyed me though. So many other great characters in this story as well as the MC; like their families, although Dean (Spencer’s brother) was questionable at times. There were also times I did think things were a little weird or didn’t make sense to the story. It also jumped around quite a bit without warning. Like first they were in seventh grade and then all of a sudden it would be months or a year later without warning. So had to figure that out. I’m also not sure if that’s just the way that the e-ARC was setup, because there weren’t always breaks or headers other than “chapter numbers” or when Spencer created a taxonomy list.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I am really happy that I was given the opportunity to read it. There were a lot of things to take away from this and it was interesting to learn a little about Tourette Syndrome. I haven’t read any books that had a character with TS, so that was also cool about reading this one. New experiences and learning things I don’t know a whole lot about. It was just released earlier this month, so definitely go check it out!

In case you missed it;
WWW Wednesday #45.
Photo A Day|| January 9-12.
Thoughts|| The Cruel Prince.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleypink

2018 Reading Goals.

Posted on January 2, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I decided to come up with a list of things I hope to accomplish or do more of in 2018 as far as reading/books go. I will have another list for regular life things later, but this one will be about books!

2018 Goodreads challenge. My Goodreads reading challenge is to read 60 books. In 2017 I read 59 books and listened to 8 audiobooks. Since I was able to read 59 books in 2017, I decided to increase my Goodreads challenge to 60. I think it’s doable, especially since 2017 I didn’t read nearly as much as I have in the past due to being busy and quite a few reading/blogging slumps. I am not going to count audiobooks this year toward my Goodreads challenge, but I will still list all the audiobooks that I listen to in recaps or my 2018 books I read page here. So that means my main goal is to read 60 books myself and audiobooks don’t count toward that total.

Read more adult books. I love YA, I always gravitate more toward YA, but I have so many adult books that I’ve been neglecting. I want to get to more of those books and finally read some of the ones that I’ve had for awhile and just never got to. Don’t get me wrong, I still and forever will love YA, but it’ll be nice to branch out more. I enjoy adult books as well, I just never read as many.

Read my unfinished series. I have started a lot of book series over the last few years and haven’t finished them. I want to finish the completed series and catch up to the newest books in the uncompleted series that I’ve started. In 2017 I gravitated toward more standalone books, because I felt so guilty starting a new series when I have so many that I haven’t finished yet. So I want to get to more of those, so I can finally start some new series that I’ve been dying to read. I used to read an entire series (if it was an older one and had all or most books out) before I even started a new book/series. I need to do that again, which brings me to my next thing.

Binge read any new series I start. If I start a new book series and it has more than one book out, I want to binge all the available books instead of putting them on hold and reading other books. Before I started my blog in 2015, I used to do that like I mentioned above. I never even bought a new book until I finished the one I was currently reading; unless it was a series that I was loving, then I bought all the books and binge read them all. Not going to lie, as much as I love blogging and everyone I met here, it’s kind of changed my reading habits A LOT. Now I’m drowning in unread books and unfinished series.

Continue to buy less books. In 2017 I did a pretty good job with not buying so many books. I used my library a lot more if I was dying to read something that I didn’t have. It helped me with finally reading more of the older books I’ve had on my shelf’s that I hadn’t read yet and kept neglecting due to buying more and more books every month. So I want to continue to not buy so many new books and continue to read my older books.

Get rid of books I don’t like/plan to reread. I’m out of bookshelf space. I continue to run out of bookshelf space. #bookwormproblems. I want to put an empty box next to my bookshelf, so if I don’t like a book or it was just “okay” and I don’t have any real connection to it, I plan to drop it in the empty box instead of putting it back on my shelf. Once the box is filled, I will donate the books or give them away and continue again. I want to try to own books I REALLY love versus having a ton of books taking up space that could be used for new books.

Don’t fall behind on ARCs. I read a lot of ARCs in 2017. Probably more than my previous years of blogging. It was part of my plan for buying less books in 2017. If I got them from publishers, I would be able to read the books I wanted, blog about them, and if I truly loved them I would buy the finished copies for myself when they got released. It worked great, but toward the end of the year with the holidays and blogging slump, I fell a bit behind. I am playing catch up now and although I don’t plan to request as much this year, I don’t want to get behind on any that I do request.

These are pretty much my main focus for 2018 as far as reading and books go. I also want to have fun with this, so I am not putting any pressure whatsoever, because then that just sucks the fun out of it and I’ll not want to try anymore. I don’t really have any set goals for blogging, because I struggled in 2017 with it becoming a chore rather than fun. So I am going to continue to post the content that I want to post (whether books, photography, travel, etc.) and post when I want to. I don’t want to feel like I have to or it’ll again not feel fun to me and I may not be around much again. I also have a ton of things happening in 2018 that I haven’t talked about yet, so that may take up some of my time as well. It’s all about balance and I have to find something that works for me.

What are some goals you have for this year? Feel free to link me to your posts if you have one!

In case you missed it;
New Year, New Blog.
Recap|| December.
Random|| Christmas & Other Things.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyorange

Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag.

Posted on July 6, 2015 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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Hi 🙂

I was nominated by Ana from Ana’s Lair for the Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag. Go check out her blog! Thank you Ana for the nomination!

1. How long have you been a blogger?

+ I started my blog back in 2011, but I never really kept up with it and I only had my bestie following me. I officially started this new blog 6-7 months ago; in January.

2. At what point do you think you will stop?

+ I’m not sure when I will stop or if I ever will! I love doing it and as love as I love doing it, I will keep with it!

3. What is the best thing?

+ One of the best things is getting to meet and talk to fellow bloggers! It’s been fun to share my love for books and talk with others that love them just as much as I do.

4. What is the worst thing? What do you do to make it okay?

+ I guess not being able to come up with posts to do! Tags and weekly memes help with that most of the time.

5. How long does it take you to create/find pictures to use?

+ Most of the time I use pictures that I personally took myself. Sometimes I’ll search for gifs to use in my blog posts and it doesn’t usually take too long.

6. Who is your book crush?

+ OMG…I have so many book crushes! This year my really big book crush would have to be Raffe from the Penyrn and the End of Days series. Go check out the series! Angelfall is the first book!

7. What author would you like to have on your blog?

+ ALL OF THEM!? If I had to choose, I would probably go with Becky Albertalli (author of Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda). She’s such a cool person and we’ve tweeted a bunch of times and it’s always been fun.

8. What do you wear when you write your blog posts?

+ It all depends on where I’m at, to be honest. I mostly do them in the morning after I get dressed for work though, so I’m usually just wearing pants and a t-shirt, lol. Nothing fancy, haha.

9. How long does it take you to prepare?

+ Sometimes I do my posts in advanced and then over the days leading up to when I plan to post, I’ll tweak them a bit. If I don’t do it in advanced, then it probably takes me about 30 minutes. Sometimes I’ll type up things on my phone to save for later for my blog.

10. How do you feel about the book blogger community/culture?

+ I love the book blogger community and I am so excited that I created this blog and have been able to be apart of it! There are so many awesome bloggers and it’s exciting to meet you all and talk to you all!

11. What do you think one should do to get a successful blog?

+ Post at least a few times a week, use pictures (even if it’s just book covers), use tags (tags are wonderful things and it gets your posts out there to everyone), and engage with other bloggers. It’s fun getting likes and it’s also great getting comments. You engage better that way and you get to know other bloggers better.

I nominate you all to do this! It’s a fun little tag to have on your blog and it may be helpful to other bloggers as well. I would love to see your answers, so link me to your posts if you choose to do it! 🙂

I have some random pictures to share with you from 4th of July weekend. You may have seen these on Instagram if you follow me.

I tried to get ColbyJack (my cat, if you’re new to my blog) a picture with the little hat on as well, but he was not having it! It’s hard enough to get him in his little birthday hat on his birthday, so trying with this hat was a huge fail. I got Dax and Bella to do it though! 😛

So I don’t leave him out of the post though, here is ColbyJack doing what he does best! 😛

Here are a couple recent posts I’ve done:
Thoughts: We Were Liars.
Blogger Recognition Award.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has an amazing Monday! I am so tired today, so hopefully this day goes by fast! BYE! ❤

Blogger Recognition Award.

Posted on July 3, 2015 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hi 🙂

I was nominated by my totally awesome friend Shelbie over at Lu-Lu’s Rants & Reads for the Blogger Recognition Award. It was originally created by was originally created by Eve over at Edge of Night. Thank you, Shelbie! You guys should go over and check out her blog! She’s super cool, loves Doctor Who, and has great taste in books!

Rules:

Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to. Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you.

Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers. Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog. List who you’ve nominated in the post. Make sure to also attach the award itself! (You can do this by right-clicking, saving, and uploading the image above).
Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to the award post you created.

Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

My Story:

I originally started this blog back in 2011 with my bestie over at The Art of Failing. We both made a blog to do 30 day writing challenges. That went good for awhile and then I neglected my blog and we tried again a year or two ago. I bought both of us a book called “642 Things to Write About” and we were going to start blogging about the topics from the book. Failed again, sigh.

Eventually, I just didn’t even look at it much anymore until January of this year. I decided to start over; so I erased all my old entries, renamed my blog, updated the look of it, and here I am! I enjoy reading and I’ve been doing a lot of it this year. I think having this blog really got me back into reading. Last year I read a total of 26 books, but this year I am already at 75 (that’s including audiobooks too). HUGE DIFFERENCE!

That’s basically how all this got started. It’s been nice getting to know so many awesome people and I’m sure this has made my boyfriend a little happier not having to listen to my constant book talk! I still try to make him read, 😛 – always fail, lol. He’s been cool about my craziness with books, especially this year. He puts up with bookstore and thrift store trips.

My advice to new bloggers is to have fun! Write things that you love to write about and do it for yourself! I know some things can start to feel like a chore and it isn’t fun anymore, so do the posts for you before anything else. Go crazy with it! Blogging is fun and the more you do it, the better you get. I know at first I was kind of lost with it all, but slowly I’ve been getting better and I’m always striving to do better with my blog even now.

Don’t be afraid to meet new people and follow other blogs! Engage with others too. Likes are cool, but comments are where you actually get to know the person and talk with them. I’ve also talked to so many of you guys outside of this blog and that’s awesome! It’s nice to share other little aspects of my life outside of books too. I have tons of my blogger friends on Instagram, Twitter, and Goodreads too. It’s nice to connect other places as well. It makes you really feel closer to them outside of just books. You form really good friendships.

Shelbie mentioned how we originally met on Pinterest and then became friends on here over on her blog post. It’s been totally awesome talking to her outside of just the blogoverse. We pretty much talk almost every single day now through all social media outlets and even texting. You form amazing friendships like what happened with her and I this way and it’s great! It’s always exciting to talk to others outside of here! So go meet new friends and it’ll make the blogging experience so much more exciting and rewarding!

I nominate:

Stefani @ Caught Read Handed
Yvo @ It’s All About Books
Emily @ The Diary of a Bibliophile
Alina @ Radiant Reads
Josie @ Josie’s Book Corner
Nicole @ Awayinneverland
Analee @ Book Snacks
Aimal @ Bookshelves & Paperbacks
Claire @ Art and Soul
Stephanie & Taylor @ Bibliophile Gathering

I also nominate everyone else too! I would love to hear your story and meet new friends on here! Link me to your posts! 🙂 If you’ve already done this award, ignore and feel free to link me to your posts if I haven’t already checked them out!

And if you want to become friends outside of here, feel free to add me to the following and let me know in the comments and I’ll make sure to add you back!

Instagram: heyyitsashley
Goodreads: heyyitsashley_
Pinterest: lalalaitsashley
Twitter: whoa_itsashley

In case you missed them, here are a few posts I’ve done recently linked below! 🙂
Friday Finds #21. – Books I added to my TBR this week. Just did this post a few hours ago.
June Recap & July TBR. – Books I read in June and books I hope to read this month.
Top Ten Tuesday. – Top books I read so far in 2015.

I hope everyone has an awesome day! BYE! ❤

Book Haul Part One: 13 Books.

Posted on April 19, 2015 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey 🙂

I’ve mentioned a few times that I was going to have a book haul post coming up, so I decided to just do it in two parts, because this post is going to be pretty big as it is. I bought 23 books over the last week or two. Twenty-three books is kind of insane, but in my part two post in the next day or two, you will see why I couldn’t help but buy more! I am impatiently waiting for those ten books to be delivered, ahhhh! lol. Anyway, all will be linked to Goodreads, so let’s get started!

The following 13 books are the books that I got from Barnes & Noble (online and then a trip to the actual store) and from Goodwill. My boyfriend actually bought me four books when we went to Barnes & Noble, so that was really nice of him! I’m glad he supports my addiction….lol! He told me he will tell me when it becomes a problem, lol.

GOODWILL BOOKS:

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
Don’t Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Green River Rising by Tim Willocks

I was so excited that I found Catching Fire and Mockingjay at Goodwill. I own the e-books of the series, but I really want to own the physical copies too. They were only $1.50 each!! Now I just need to get The Hunger Games and everything will be right in the world….well right with my bookshelf anyway! The Five People You Meet in Heaven is the only Mitch Albom book that I didn’t own (physical or e-book), so I couldn’t pass it up and I love the book so much!

BARNES & NOBLE ONLINE:

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

My Barnes & Noble online purchase was only supposed to be for Simon vs., but if I added another book I would get free shipping, lol! I also had a coupon code, so I added another. It’s to the point that I have to justify and reason, haha. I am excited about all of these and I am sure you have already seen my excitement over Simon vs. I’ve been wanting to buy Attachments, but I could never find it in any of the stores I have gone to, so I had to order it.

BARNES & NOBLE STORE:

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Asylum by Madeleine Roux
Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier
All the Rage by Courtney Summers

These are the books that my boyfriend bought me. I picked them out and he paid for them. 🙂 I am excited about all of these, because I really want to read them. Although, I guess I really want to read all of the books on my TBR, lol. These are the books that I actually went into the store looking to get. I added Asylum, because I’ve been wanting to read it and both Targets I go to only have the sequel! So I just added it to the three.

So this was part one of the book haul and part two will come sometime in the next day or two. I can’t wait to get started on reading these books! I decided to redo my book jar and only include the books that I own, that way I can start reading more of those! I am hoping it also helps with not buying a lot of books again or as often….even though I am sure it won’t help. lol! I can try and hope though, right?

Here are some of my other posts from this week in case you missed them or want to check them out!

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda – A book published this year.
Friday Finds #10 & Kindle E-Books – Books that I added to my TBR this week.

I have a date with Throne of Glass now. I am excited to get back into it, because I have a feeling that it will start picking up. Here is a picture of the sunset from yesterday on the way home from Barnes & Noble. It’s a perfect way to end this post. ❤ bye!

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